Summer Picking

Summer has been a scorcher, of course, and that seems to have reduced the number of quality antique dealers at the flea market, good estate sales and yard sales lately. Plus, everybody in Raleigh goes to the beach on the weekends so they are fewer people around. Nonetheless, I have found some good junk that I'd like to show you.

A long time restaurant owner and architectural antique collector liquidated some of his stuff from his warehouse and I was about the first person in to see what he had. -Lots of interesting stuff. For 30 years, he has picked up and socked away pieces of architecture from old Raleigh buildings that were being gutted. Most of it was too big for me to use but I got some killer industrial 'blastproof' shades and a couple of advertising pieces. Knowing my love of 'The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous', I couldn't pass up a Schlitz clock, could I?

I don't come across killer stuff that I can afford much anymore but I did score this neon clock out of the warehouse. -Awesome original condition with super art deco detail. I'm sure it will need a little rewiring but the neon tubing looks good and the transformer should work. One day, it will be hanging in my kitchen, glowing in sea foam green or baby blue glory.
I picked this little restaurant tea cup out of a box at a recent sale in town. It is a nice little piece of Raleigh history. This was used to serve hot tea at a Chinese Restaurant during the 1940s, give or take. Supposedly, Chinese visitors to our country during this time would dine out and not know what these cups were for because they were unknown in China. Don't know whether that's true or not, though!I found these stackable chairs at the flea market in May and they spoke to me. I also picked up five blue ones. They look like chairs made in the 1990s, right? Turns out they are fairly famous in design circles and are known as '40/4' Chairs, designed by David Rowland. According to the Museum of Modern Art, the design dates from 1962 (these are probably from the 1970s) and even though the seats and back look like plastic, they are actually steel. They are pretty remarkable in that they provide wonderful ergonomic support while taking up very little space. Millions of these were produced for universities and other public spaces all over the world. David Rowland gave them the name 40/4 chairs because 40 chairs can be stacked at a height of four feet. -They are surprisingly heavy though and need a special dolly to haul that many around.There was an estate sale held at this home inside the beltline in June and it didn't look like that much at first but the owner was a scientist or amateur tinkerer because he had a small shop in his basement with some pretty cool stuff. There was a great Stickley Bros. table with great Arts and Crafts details. It was used as a shop table so it had a lot of dust and grease all over it but would have cleaned up great. Just the kind of dirty junk I love! Unfortunately, I was too late to the party and missed it. But I did find this great industrial shop stool with oak seat priced right.

I picked up this made in Japan motorized train for $2 at the 'Christmas Yard Display' estate sale that I blogged about a few weeks back.
This little piece of ephemera is really special. I picked up a couple of early fishing nets from the 'Groovy Yard Sale' and traded them to a dealer for this package of disposable wipes from the 1920s or 1930s (didn't know they had those back then, did you?) -The dealer found them this spring in an old house in Northern Michigan that was full of stuff like this. Must have been fun to pick through!